The Drought Ended for at Least One Team

The Golden State Warriors just won the NBA Finals; I’ve surprised myself the past several weeks by watching the NBA playoffs and enjoying actually sitting and watching the games again after a long hiatus. This was a good Final series mainly because it was hard to pick which team to pull for with long championship droughts for both teams; with no championships of any kind in Cleveland for 50 years they became my sentimental favorite.

The NBA has been virtually unwatchable for a long time. The former commissioner created street ball with refs and those guys were not very useful either.  Jordan made palming the ball acceptable the way he brought the ball up the floor; it would have been called traveling in the real OLD days, as in pre 1983. I think Kobe should send Mike a couple truckloads of champagne for getting the extra step allowed which helped him score probably 3 to 4,000 more points over his career. I watched Dr. J in his prime; he didn’t need that extra step. Stern oversaw an influx of too many young players not bothering to improve their skills and being more interested in making the Top Ten Plays on ESPN, thus becoming the standard fare the past couple of decades.  The past few years with Miami putting together their Big 3 then making 4 straight trips to the Finals and winning twice was unprecedented; the Lakers have tried that experiment twice and failed miserably both times. When it comes to the Finals, great teams win championships and that’s what the Finals this year was about.

It was fun to watch the way the Warriors moved the ball around; sometimes the ball didn’t touch the floor after the first pass.  Stephon Curry is just a fabulous player and one of the best shooters I have ever seen. Steve Kerr’s championship pedigree paid dividends while he coached his butt off. Even with the team he had he still had to use them right and he did.  This is a young solid team that should be in the conversation for at least another few years.

Cleveland just didn’t have enough left in the tank after going up 2-1; their energy level after that game just wasn’t there the last three games. The Cavs grit and scrappiness got them the lead in the series, but it wore them out. The last three games they had too many shots that hit the front of the rim and would just drop; a glaring sign their legs were approaching jello. Lebron James had to do too much and the other guys just didn’t step up after they won Game 3. Even with Tristen Thompson banging the boards like a boss they just didn’t have the horses.  Cleveland fans are left to wonder what might have been if Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving had been able to play the whole series.

If anyone had told me I would be watching the NBA Finals this year back when the season started I would have choked on my coffee from laughing.  I write the words “I enjoyed it” with more than a dash of incredulity. Only time can answer the question, Will I watch next season?